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Sunday, June 17, 2012

#Egyelections : It is matter of hours

It is only matter of 12 hours when the polling stations are closed and the votes counting will start across the country where we will have a new President of Egypt by tomorrow’s early morning.

There are hopes and expectations that the turnout increases on Sunday compared to yesterday’s very low turnout that some expected to be nearly 40%. Again frustration and terrible hot weather make many people believe it is not worth it unfortunately.

I passed by a polling station today in the way to my work to find it empty. It is downtown Cairo. It is weak turnout all over the polling stations.

Yesterday the ministry of health reported that 35 were fell sick in the polling stations including 3 judges.

Both campaigns depend on the negative publicity of the other , of course the media is treating the Muslim brotherhood just like the days of Mubarak.

Another important remark I noticed yesterday and somebody brought it up : Where are the Salafists ?? The Salafists are nowhere to be seen.

@11:28 AM

Low turnout is the common between all the polling stations in the country so far. In Cairo there are empty polling stations technically. The turnout can be less than 30% if it continues like that. The turnout is low so far in Cairo, Alexandria , Suez, Kafr El Sheikh. Again the weather can play important role here.

The army is distributing these flyers in Cairo to encourage people to go and to vote. “Screen shot by Samir Omar”

Now it is noticeable today and yesterday that the participation of the elderly is higher than youth , young Egyptians are boycotting the elections as it seems from their turnout. Even those young Egyptians went to the polling stations , many of them invalidated their votes including those who are not political activists.

We were born and live in America but my wife and I have visited Egypt five times. We have come to love the country as well as the people we have come to know. Our best wishes are with the good people of Egypt, and our hopes are for a better future for all. My Egypt blog: http://hawkeye63.blogspot.com/

The parliamentary dissolution was suspiciously timed to be near the run-off voting. Now, with the dissolution of the parliament, the only plausible source of domination from a single political faction comes from military elites and their minions. However, by waiting until the last moment to dissolve the parliament, it was possible to shift attention off of these people for as long as possible.

It seems though that Shafiq's fixation of the Brotherhood indicates that he underestimates other political factions and does not understand how big of a threat to his presidency they will pose. It is like he believes that supporters of Sabbahi, Aboul Fotouh, and the others are a null force. They are not going to be his ally and cannot be discredited by harping on a parliament that was dissolved before it actually had the opportunity to do almost anything. Additionally, his lack of answers to Egypt's economic problems will quickly inflict damage on his supporters' popularity.

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